Frederick William Lanchester
Frederick William Lanchester (1868–1946) was a British automotive and aeronautical engineer. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society and received the Gold Medal of the Royal Aeronautical Society in 1926.
He attended Hartley College, Southampton, and then the Royal College of Science. He worked in a patent office in 1888 and submitted his first patent (for 'hatching, shading and geometrical design') that year.[1] In 1889 he started working at the Forward Gas-Engine Co. in Birmingham. There, he developed the pendulum governor and the Lanchester engine starter. He went on to develop an automobile on his own.[2][3]
Lanchester experimented with model gliders and developed a paper on vortexes in flight. This paper was read in 1895 to the Birmingham Natural History and Philosophical Society, and submitted to and rejected by the Physical Society in September 1897. By the time Lanchester published his two volumes of Aerial Flight (1907–1908), Ludwig Prandtl in Germany had advanced some similar ideas. However, his work still made a significant contribution to the understanding of aerodynamics.[2][4]
In 1909 Lanchester became consulting engineer to Daimler Motor Company and its parent company Birmingham Small Arms Company.[2]
In the same year, he was appointed to the the Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, a scientific committee based at the National Physical Laboratory assigned to review technical questions connected with flight.[5]
Publications
- Aerial Flight, two volumes:
- Aerodynamics, 1907 (pdf)
- Aerodonetics, 1908 (pdf)
- Aircraft in Warfare: The Dawn of the Fourth Arm, 1916 (pdf)
- The Flying Machine From an Engineering Standpoint, 1917 (reprint of 1914 "James Forrest Lecture") (pdf)
Links
- w:Frederick William Lanchester
- "Frederick Lanchester", Grace's Guide
- Lanchester, "Contra-Props: Recollections of Early Considerations by Advisory Committee for Aeronautics: A Pioneer's 1907 Patent: Suggestions for Further Research", Flight, 11 December 1941, p. 418.
(Note: Lanchester also held more than a hundred patents internationally, most dealing with engines and other mechanical technology related—potentially, not exclusively—to aircraft.)
Patents whose inventor or applicant is Frederick William Lanchester or F. W. Lanchester or Frederick W. Lanchester
- Patent GB-1905-17935
- Patent GB-1907-9413 (English title: (Flying machine and propeller drive), Filing date: 1907-04-23)
- Patent GB-1897-3608 (English title: Flying machine with automatic rudder control, Filing date: 1897-02-10)
- Patent GB-1909-8849 (Filing date: 1909-04-14)
- Patent GB-1909-18384 (English title: Improvements in Alighting Mechanism for Flying Machines, Filing date: 1909-08-10)
- Patent GB-1909-10422 (English title: multicelled box rudder, Filing date: 1969-12-31)
- Patent FR-1910-412683 (Filing date: 1910-02-16)
- Patent GB-1911-21360 (English title: Alighting Mechanism for Aeronautical Machine, Supplementary to patent: Patent GB-1909-18384, Filing date: 1911-09-27)
- Patent GB-1911-23271 (English title: Stabilisation of Flying Machines, Filing date: 1911-10-21)
- Patent GB-1917-130025 (English title: Improvements in the Attachment of Aeronautical Propellers and in Bosses therefor, Filing date: 1917-12-22)
Publications by or about Frederick William Lanchester or F. W. Lanchester or Frederick W. Lanchester
- Lanchester, Aerodynamics (Simple title: Aerodynamics, Journal: Aër. Journ.)
- Lanchester, 1907, Aerodonetics, constituting the second volume of a complete work on aerial flight, with appendices on the theory and application of the gyroscope, on the flight of projectiles (1) (Simple title: Aerodonetics, constituting the second volume of a complete work on aerial flight, with appendices on the theory and application of the gyroscope, on the flight of projectiles (1))
- Lanchester, 1908, Aerodonetics, constituting the second volume of a complete work on aerial flight, with appendices on the theory and application of the gyroscope, on the flight of projectiles (2) (Simple title: Aerodonetics, constituting the second volume of a complete work on aerial flight, with appendices on the theory and application of the gyroscope, on the flight of projectiles (2))
- Lanchester, 1908, Laws of flight. 1. Theory of sustentation. 2. Theory of stability (Simple title: Laws of flight. 1. Theory of sustentation. 2. Theory of stability, Journal: Eng. Mech. World Sci.)
- Lanchester, 1909, The Wright and Voisin types of flying machine (Simple title: The Wright and Voisin types of flying machine, Journal: Aër. Journ.)
- Lanchester, 1909, The Wright and Voisin types of flying machine (Simple title: The Wright and Voisin types of flying machine, Journal: Flight)
- Lanchester, 1909, The flight of birds. The mechanics of a bird's way in the air (Simple title: The flight of birds. The mechanics of a bird's way in the air, Journal: Scient. Amer. Suppl.)
- Lanchester, 1909, Laws of flight (Simple title: Laws of flight, Journal: Aeronautics)
- Lanchester, 1909, The flight of birds. II. The mechanics of a bird's way in the air (Simple title: The flight of birds. II. The mechanics of a bird's way in the air, Journal: Scient. Amer. Suppl.)
- Dyes, 1910, Aeronautische Patente (Simple title: Aeronautische Patente, Journal: Deutsche Zeitschrift für Luftschiffahrt)
- Lanchester, 1914, The flying machine from an engineering standpoint. A review of recent progress (Simple title: The flying machine from an engineering standpoint. A review of recent progress, Journal: Scient. Amer. Suppl.)
- Lanchester, 1916, Aircraft in Warfare (Simple title: Aircraft in Warfare)
- Lanchester, 1916, The development of the military aeroplane. A discussion of the question of size (Simple title: The development of the military aeroplane. A discussion of the question of size, Journal: Scient. Amer. Suppl.)
- Hopwood-Lewis and Macleod, 2013, on Patents, Lanchester, and the Aero Society of Great Britain (Simple title: Patents, Lanchester, and the Aero Society of Great Britain, Journal: Studies in History and Philosophy of Science)
References
- ↑ This claim appears on w:Frederick William Lanchester and other places (e.g. Grace's Guide, Daily Telegraph) which may have copied it from Wikipedia. It's sourced to Rolt, L.T.C. (1962). Great Engineers which source still needs to be checked directly or confirmed elsewhere.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 H.R. Ricardo, "Frederick William Lanchester, 1868–1946", Obituary Notices of the Fellows of the Royal Society, May 1948.
- ↑ "Frederick William Lanchester: British Engineer", Encyclopaedia Brittanica, updated 4 March 2019, accessed 18 April 2019.
- ↑ "Dr. F. W. Lanchester: Death of a Pioneer in Aerodynamic Aerofoil Theory", Flight, 14 March 1946, p. 266.
- ↑ Advisory Committee, 1910, Technical Report of the Advisory Committee for the year 1910-1911, p. 4.
| Names | Frederick William Lanchester |
|---|---|
| Birth date | 1868-10-23 |
| Death date | 1946-03-08 |
| Countries | GB |
| Locations | London; Birmingham |
| Occupations | engineer |
| Tech areas | Aerodynamics, Airfoil, automobile |
| Affiliations | Daimler Motor Company, Birmingham Small Arms Company, Royal Society, Aeronautical Society of Great Britain |
| Wikidata id | Q1453055 |
